Tag Archives: sanctification

Among Masculinity's Greatest Excitements

March 30, 2011 By in men's ministry Tags: , , Leave a comment

Most exciting things about manhood?

Easy.

Hunting, fishing, shooting, football, basketball, baseball, most other balls, biking (motorized or mountain), climbing, diving, flying, camping, riding, cooking (hey, it’s my list), lots of things.

Oh, did I say hunting?

But what about holiness?

You want to put spiritual growth on a list of masculinity’s greatest excitements?!

Richard Phillips does in his book The Masculine Mandate. He argues from 2 Corinthians 3:18 this way:

God is increasingly working His own glory into us degree after degree, and He is doing this by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, whom God has sent to make us increasingly holy.

One of the most exciting things in my life is my growth in holiness, called sanctification, which the Bible identifies as the glory of God in me. . . . How exciting that God is working in me with the power of His Holy Spirit, to make me more like Him. What I am now is not all there is–praise the Lord. There is increased glory ahead for me, as God works in me through His word and through prayer by the power of His mighty Spirit (p. 38).

This Saturday Oxford Club for Men at OGC continues its study of Phillips’ book in chapter four, Man As the Image of God.

It’s not too late to get in on the action. Join us at 7 AM at the church office this Saturday for a bring-your-own breakfast and group discussion.

You might end up putting your experience of the doctrine of sanctification up there along side or even above dressing a white tail deer as a result.

Radical Review

March 29, 2011 By in Books, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

At least twice now I have referenced in a message David Platt’s book Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream.

Today I received an email from someone with a link to a Gospel Coalition review of Platt’s book by Kevin DeYoung.

DeYoung expresses some helpful push back to some of the potentially more extreme aspects of Radical or at least they way certain things might be taken along the way by the less mature, more emotionally stirred, less critically insightful reader.

Uniquely it includes a response in turn from Platt, something you don’t see/read every day. It’s worth the read. Here’s a sample from DeYoung’s critique:

We must do more to plant the plea for sacrificial living more solidly in the soil of gospel grace. Several times David talks about the love of Christ as our motivation for radical discipleship or the power of God and the means for radical discipleship. But I didn’t sense the strong call to obedience was slowly marinated in God’s lavish mercy. I wanted to see sanctification more clearly flowing out of justification.

I commend this interchange to the reader as an example of redemptive debate. Would that more of God’s people engaged in this kind of critique/response with such gospel grace. You can read the entire piece here.

In the end result, risks notwithstanding to some of Platt’s bold and passionate pleas, I personally want to embrace the five-fold practical challenge of application with which Platt leaves his readers and pray for a church full of folks who will do the same.

How People Change – Our Real Problem

March 15, 2011 By in Spiritual Life Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

Vacation for me, among other things, means time to read. Lots of leisurely, lovely, luxurious time to devour a book from cover-to-cover without lots of stops and starts.

I got to do that this past week in NC with How People Change (Tim Lane & Paul Tripp, New Growth Press, 2006, 258 pages).

I liked it and I hated it at the same time.

I liked it because of its practical aim. The goal of this book is to help you grasp the implications of the good news of Jesus Christ for your identity and the daily trials and temptations you face (p. 36). Who doesn’t face daily trials and temptations? Who doesn’t at times feel stuck within a malaise of difficulties that seem to leave a believer powerless and decidedly unspiritual? I know I do.

I found lots of good stuff here, biblically-based and practically-applied principles for addressing how God works through the heat of trials to reveal the thorns of our flesh to lead us to the cross of Christ to bring forth the fruit of the gospel. That’s the book in a nutshell.

I hated it because it put me on a path of examining my heart that revealed way too much of its sinfulness. Don’t you hate that?

This book reminded me of one of the truths I have struggled most to accept in the process of my personal sanctification. In the immortal words of Pogo, We have met the enemy and he is us!

While external conditions can be very influential in our lives and should not be ignored, the Bible says that they are only the occasion for sin, not the cause. Difficulties in life do not cause sin. Our background, relationships, situation, and physical condition only provide the opportunity for the thoughts, words, and actions to reveal whatever is already in our hearts. Our hearts are the ultimate cause of our responses, and where the true spiritual battle is fought … [while] we must never minimize our suffering – ours or anyone else’s … we must make the important distinction between the occasion for sin and the ultimate cause of sin. This will determine what you think the solution to the problem will be …The bible says that my real problem is not psychological (low self-esteem or unmet needs), social (bad relationships and influences), historical (my past), or physiological (my body). They are significant influences, but my real problem is spiritual (my straying heart and my need for Christ). I have replaced Christ with something else, and as a consequence, my hearts is hopeless and powerless. Its responses reflect its bondage to whatever it is serving instead of Christ. Ultimately my real problem is a worship disorder.

So during my week of vacation in NC the Lord confronted me with my impatience, my hero-worship, my love of comfort, my sense of entitlement, oh I could go on. But how depressing a thought is that?

Thank God Lane and Tripp take the reader to the gospel, my only hope and your only hope.

If you are feeling stuck and won’t mind the pain to get to the gain of the gospel, get a copy of this book and read it before you go on vacation so you don’t ruin your vacation.

The Gospel's Most Passionate Plea

September 19, 2010 By in Exposition Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

Today’s sermon from Romans 12:1-13 is now on the web. You can listen to it here.

Here’s how I summarized and applied the text:

A life lived in the grip of the gospel bears the stamp of God’s glory on every aspect of that life. With respect to God, decisive commitment. With respect to self, continual change. With respect to others, intimate connection. The applications are plain, are they not? One, decide today, if you have not yet done so,  based on the massive mercies of God to you in Christ, saving you from sin and judgment, to climb, the whole of you, onto the altar of sacrifice and dedicate your life to Him as a holy and pleasing one of worship. Two, identify the ways you have succumbed to the worlds way of thinking, like perhaps individualism, letting it squeeze you into its mold, and battle back by daily reading, studying, memorizing and meditating on the word of God so that you might discern what pleases Him and live out His will in your life. Three, join a growth group this year. Determine to put yourself in a place that the mercies of God in the gospel flowing into your life will in turn flow out of your life to and with others in the intimate fellowship of a small group.

Let us live our lives this week in light of the gospel’s passionate plea for lives stamped with God’s glory in every respect.

Helpful Tools for Truth Acquisition

February 21, 2010 By in Exposition, Sunday Morning Tags: , , , 4 Comments

This morning I introduced part one of what will end up as three sermons with the same title from John 8:31-38: How To Be Certain Your Faith Is Not Fatally Flawed.

Jesus prescribes three tests for testing faith’s genuineness in vv. 31-32:

  1. Continuation in His word – If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.
  2. Acquisition of the truth – you will know the truth.
  3. Liberation from one’s sin – and the truth will set you free.

I made much of the connection between the first and second points. One glorious consequence of remaining in the word of Jesus, hearing and obeying it, is that we gain increasingly greater understanding of truth over and against falsehood.

Certain tools must belong in your toolkit if you hope to grow in your knowledge of the truth. It is not enough to read the Bible, though that certainly is essential to what Jesus means when He says we must abide in His word as a test of genuine faith. We have to get our arms around the meaning of His words and grasp the truth contained within them.

Along the way several extra-biblical helps can aid in one’s understanding of the truths taught in the Bible, truths that serve to set us free from the bondage of sin.

Some, not all, you can access online. I have sought to provide links below where this is the case.

Here are my suggestions for helpful tools for truth acquisition as a follower of Jesus Christ. More exist for sure, but these seem basic to  me.

First, you need a solid one volume commentary of the Bible. Puritan Matthew Henry’s complete and unabridged work can be accessed here. You don’t want to rely on a commentary to do your own study, but you definitely want to check your work by comparing it to a solid teacher either from the past or today. If you can afford it, John MacArthur’s New Testament Commentaries are now available. But here’s a tip. Much of those works come right from his sermons that you can access here. The same is true of John Piper’s sermons here. Save yourself some bucks. Calvin’s commentaries are online too here.

Second, make sure you have a Bible dictionary or encyclopedia at your disposal. You can access ISBE, a classic for cultural and historical background study, here. For example, if you wanted to learn more about Abraham and the significance of his reference in John 8:33, you could look up his name in the encyclopedia and have a wealth of information about him at your finger tips.

Third, invest in a one-volume systematic theology. Wayne Grudem’s is among the best for accuracy and readability. However, if you can’t afford that option, you still have online hope. John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion can be found here. You don’t get a helpful index with this masterpiece by the reformer, but you will be reading one of the all time great digests of truth that has ever come from the pen of man. This year I am reading through this work a paragraph at a time as part of my devotions. It is a must read for the reformed follower of Jesus.

Fourth, utilize a devotional guide. I love Ligonier’s TableTalk. After using this resource for a year now, I am amazed at how much truth this little booklet crams into each monthly installment. It is the first thing I open each morning as I approach the Lord for communing with Him. You will find a daily reading and themed articles each month that will greatly contribute to the increase of your truth quotient.

Fifth, make sure you include some reading from the saints of the past. You can get absolutely free Free Grace Broadcaster from Mount Zion Bible Church in Pensacola, Florida. Every quarter they publish a booklet of largely Puritan writings on different subjects. Order your subscription or read online here.

Sixth, books, you’ve got to read books! As I mentioned this morning, books change your life. They bring truth to life. I can’t even begin to tell you how often God has brought a book across my path that He has used to further my sanctification in a significant way. I have referenced often recently J. C. Ryle’s classic Holiness as a book I am currently digesting. Guess what? You can get it online too here! Reading good, solid, extra-biblical literature that opens your eyes to the truths of the Scriptures will make a huge difference in your life.

Seventh, go to conferences. God shows up at meetings that honor His name and teach His truth. Ligonier Ministries holds their annual conference every year right here in Orlando. How sweet is that! No travel costs. No hotel costs. Pack your own food if you need to save even more money. Register early like Nancy and I did and you will get the benefit of early bird pricing. This year’s conference theme is Tough Questions Christians Face.The lineup of speakers will knock your socks off. Take a vacation day or two and go to Ligonier. You can learn more about this year’s conference here.

No doubt there are more. Faithfully attend church and the preaching of the word. Utilize the 9:30 equipping hour. Get into a growth group. Attend the 1689 Confession tutorial class every other Wednesday (see the events calendar on the website) or listen to the classes online on our website.

If it is true that acquiring the truth in greater degrees of understanding is a mark of true discipleship, then let us be a people who are rabid for truth and as crazy about accumulating tools to that end as the carpenter is for stocking his toolkit with nothing but the very best equipment!

How to Stop the Sinful Self-Indulgence of the Flesh

January 10, 2010 By in Exposition, Sunday Morning Tags: , , Leave a comment

I know, I promised this morning I would post the study guide questions for this week’s study in Dr. Carson’s book. Actually, I have that file on my computer at the office. I am posting this from home. I promise, tomorrow I will put up the study guide.

But here is a review of the gist of this morning’s message (listen to the entire sermon here) from Colossians 3:1-4:

Sinful self-indulgence is progressively overcome by cultivating a thoroughgoing heavenly-focused orientation in this life based upon the realities of our identification with Jesus in His death, burial, resurrection and ascension. Since we have been identified with Christ in these realities we must commit to do three things if we are to overcome the sinful indulgence of our flesh. We must pursue the things of Christ in His exalted domain – seated at the right hand of God in heaven –  working hard at the various means of grace -, ponder – by memorizing and meditating upon Scripture –  the things of Christ in His exalted domain since we have died and our lives are buried with Christ and God within the unseen realm, and picture the return of Christ from His exalted domain when He and we will be revealed in the same glory.

So remember your position in Christ. This is all important. Make spiritual things the number one priority of your lives. Think on spiritual things in regular meditation. Give yourself to reading through the Bible this year and memorizing extended portions of Scripture. Pray come quickly, Lord Jesus, every day.

J. C. Ryle, in his book Holiness, writes:

Christianity will cost a man his love of ease. He must take pains and trouble if he means to run a successful race toward heaven. He must daily watch and stand on his guard, like a soldier on enemy’s ground. He must take heed to his behavior every hour of the day, in every company and in every place, in public as well as in private, among strangers as well as at home. He must be careful over his time, his tongue, his temper, his thoughts, his imagination, his motives, his conduct in every relation of life. He must be diligent about his prayers, his Bible reading, and his use of Sundays, with all their means of grace. In attending to these things, he may come far short of perfection; but there is none of those who he can safely neglect. “The soul of the sluggard desires, and has nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat” (Prov. 13:4). 

Let us be diligent that our souls may be made fat.

How to Get a Richly Supplied Soul

January 9, 2010 By in Spiritual Life, Sunday Morning Tags: , , , Leave a comment

Proverbs contrasts the sluggard who craves and gets nothing with the diligent whose soul is richly supplied, or literally, made fat (13:4). 

No matter how much the sluggard craves something, his inherent laziness precludes him from acquiring anything. He is a victim of his own sins of sloth.

There is only one road to a richly supplied, spiritually fat soul. It’s called diligence. If you and I want a richly supplied soul by God’s grace, we must work at it. Hard.

J. C. Ryle, in his book, Holiness, said true Christianity will cost a man his love of ease.

He must take pains and trouble if he means to run a successful race toward heaven. He must daily watch and stand on his guard, like a soldier on enemy’s ground. He must take heed to his behavior every hour of the day, in every company and in every place, in public as well as in private, among strangers as well as at home. He must be careful over his time, his tongue, his temper, his thoughts, his imagination, his motives, his conduct in every relation of life. He must be diligent about his prayers, his Bible reading, and his use of Sundays, with all their means of grace. In attending to these things, he may come far short of perfection; but there is none of those who he can safely neglect. “The soul of the sluggard desires, and has nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat” (Prov. 13:4) (emphasis mine).

Two emphases tomorrow at OGC will converge towards the end of promoting richly supplied souls for those who participate. In the 9:30 hour (meeting in the sanctuary this week) we will continue our study in Carson’s book, A Call to Spiritual Reformation. We have resupplied our resource table with copies that will be available tomorrow. Few books can help us more with how to grow in diligence in our prayers for a richly supplied soul. In the worship service I will preach another New Year’s sermon, this one from Colossians 3:1-4, entitled How to Stop the Sinful Self-Indulgence of the Flesh. Paul uses a diligence verb in his command in verse one – seek the things above where Christ is. Praying is one important way we do seeking that our souls may be richly supplied.

Diet all you will in the New Year that the body may return to fitness after the indulgence of the holidays. But take pains, eschew your love of ease, be diligent, seek the things above, that your soul may be made fat, richly supplied indeed.

Get a good night’s sleep and, Lord willing, I will see you tomorrow.

More Review of Our Fountain Privilege

January 4, 2010 By in Exposition Tags: , , Leave a comment

Yesterday’s message on the biblical docrtrine of adoption from 1 John 3:1a can be summed up like this:

The reality of our status as those born of God and thus belonging to Him as children in His family is owed entirely to the love He as our Father has bestowed upon us. With that love, an alien love in that it is other-worldly, there is a glory to be surveyed, a gift to be savored, and a grid to be secured.

When I blogged last night’s follow up post to the message, my wife asked me to review the five parts of point three, the grid to be secured. Seems I flew through them quite fast! Here is that section from my manuscript in case you may have missed some of those items as well. 

He wants this grid, this way of thinking about ourselves, absolutely, positively secure. He wants us flabbergasted at the wonder/glory of the alien love behind it, like the prodigal in Luke 15:20, smothered by his father’s love upon his return from the pigsty.

He wants us anchored in a guaranteed certainty in hope of the future that with our adoption as children comes a promised inheritance of unspeakable eternal wealth (Romans 8:16-17).

He wants us solidified in our understanding that the ministry of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of adoption (Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6) serves to make us realize with increasing clarity the meaning of our filial relationship with God in Christ, and to lead us into an ever deeper response to God in this relationship (Packer, Knowing God, p. 220).

He wants us sobered and gripped by implications of our adoption for our growth in Gospel holiness because as sons and daughters loved by God He disciplines us in order to produce a harvest of righteousness in us as ones so trained by that discipline (Heb. 12:6-11).

 He wants us comforted, encouraged and strengthened in the assurance of our salvation knowing that the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children and that if children, then we are heirs (Rom. 8:16-17).

That, dear ones, is a grid. It’s biblical. It’s yours as adopted children of God. May it be secure as secure can be. Nothing matters more to your spiritual growth in 2010!

May the Holy Spirit work deeply in us this year to walk in the complete security of this oh so precious grid!

Why Read Through the Bible in a Year or More?

December 26, 2009 By in Spiritual Life Tags: , , Leave a comment

469px-Robert_Murray_McCheyne-234x300I say a year or more because I don’t want people to get overwhelmed by the size of the challenge. While I want to encourage believers to stretch to accomplish the task in a year, far better that we do it in a longer period of time than not at all.

It has been my practice to read according to a plan for covering Genesis to Revelation in a year for the last ten years. Few disciplines have more thoroughly shaped my spiritual life. I plead with you – pick up a copy of the Robert Murray McCheyne plan at church this Sunday or access one of the several alternative approaches you can download on line. Or purchase a copy of one of several brands of a through-the–bible-in-a-year bibles available at your bookstore. For the last two years I have used the TNIV of one of those and have enjoyed it thoroughly. This means of grace will change your life!

In case you need convincing about this, I submit to you sixteen biblical reasons for giving yourself to reading through the Bible in a year.

  1. All Scripture is inspired by God (2 Tim. 3:16). Inspired means breathed out. It comes from God Himself to us as a gift. We dare not neglect any portion of the sacred text.
  2. That same Scripture in entirety equips us for a life of good works (2 Tim. 3:17).
  3. That same Scripture in entirety leads us to a proper knowledge and experience of the gift of salvation and the eternal life it bestows (Phil. 2:16; 2 Tim. 3:15; Jas. 1:21; 1 Pet. 1:23).
  4. The Word of God is His appointed means for fighting sin, Satan, and temptation in the spiritual warfare that constantly assaults us (Matt. 4:1-1; Eph. 6:17).
  5. Scripture pierces the heart with Holy Spirit conviction to purify thoughts, intentions, and motives of the heart (Heb. 4:12).
  6. Scripture conveys to us the grace of God and helps to build us up in our most holy faith (Acts 20:32; Jude 21).
  7. The Word of God is the means whereby God sanctifies us – sets us apart for His use and purposes (John 17:17; Eph. 5:26). It provides the spiritual nourishment whereby we may grow with respect to our glorious salvation (1 Pet. 2:2).
  8. Scripture keeps us from the peril of spiritual error (Matt. 22:29).
  9. The Bible charts out for us the path to true blessing and happiness (Luke 11:28).
  10. Scripture fosters faith and counters unbelief (John 20:31; Rom. 10:17).
  11. The Word clothes us with a nobility similar to the Bereans who searched the Scriptures daily (Acts 17:11).
  12. God’s Word transforms the mind in such a way to make a powerful antidote for being squeezed into the world’s mold (Rom. 12:2).
  13. Scripture increases patience, comfort, and perseverance in the testing that comes with trials (Rom. 15:4).
  14. The Bible sets apart the everyday gifts of God like food and sex by informing our understanding of the proper use and enjoyment of such things (1 Tim. 4:5).
  15. The Scriptures act as a preserving agent keeping us from the disaster of apostasy and spiritual shipwreck (Heb. 2:1-3).
  16. The Bible yields to us the exceedingly precious promises of God whereby we may become partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4).

There are probably more. But you get the point. Oh how many benefits come to us by the discipline of daily reading the Scriptures! If you make any resolution for 2010 I pray it would be this one. Take up and read through the entire Bible this year.

Nothing Matters More in the Battle Against Sin that Enslaves

November 24, 2009 By in Exposition Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Among the things I give thanks to God for this Thanksgiving week is the grace He has given in delivering me over the years from enslaving sin.

How does that happen? We find a significant key in Peter’s second epistle.

Second Peter addresses a threat to the church of Jesus Christ in Peter’s day in the form of heresy, false teaching. Chapter 2:1 says – there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them. Their error was libertinism. They promoted license. They preached a perverse understanding of freedom and grace that entice by sensual passions of the flesh (2:18). Anything goes was the name of the game for this bunch. Grace covers.

Peter aims in this book to take such foolishness to task and arm the church with weapons of warfare to counteract the attack. He begins this letter with the indicative before ever stressing any imperatives. He talks of what is before what should be. He lays out a grand description of what God has done in saving His people. He bases his prescriptions for godly behavior on an eloquent description of what God has done. 

In so doing he tips his hand at what makes for the key idea in the entire book. We see it in 1:2 – Grace and peace be multiplied to you. That’s not an unusual opening to any epistle. We find it often. The writer expresses a profound wish or hope that the letter to unfold in their hearing will prove to channel rivers of grace and oceans of peace to their lives – that such blessing be multiplied, be ever increasing in their lives. Where? Look at the rest of the verse – in (or through) the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 

Who doesn’t want the favor of God in his life? Who doesn’t want the peace of God in her life? Who doesn’t covet ever increasing doses of grace and peace? Such can be found in only one source – the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Don’t miss the connection in v. 2. You have no true knowledge of God if you do not claim Jesus as Lord. Jesus Christ is God. He is divine. In him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily (Col. 2:9). John 17:3 – And this is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. There is no true knowledge of the Father apart from an intimate knowledge of the Son. 

Grace, peace, life, godliness, all the things that truly matter, the ultimate treasures, come from the knowledge of God in Christ. So we don’t miss it he says it again in v. 3 – His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him (emphasis added). The words know and knowledge appear some sixteen times throughout the three chapters of this little book. Peter is trying to tell us something! It matters what you know. Perhaps it would be better to say it matters Whom you know.

There is nothing that matters more in our battle against sin than a passionately personal, thorough going, ever increasing knowledge of God and His Son the Lord Jesus. 

Do you want to win the battle over sin and its grip in your life? Give yourself to the vigorous pursuit of the growth of your knowledge of Him.